Fay Chong (1912–1973) was a

Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

artist and educator, well known for his printmaking and watercolor painting. He was also known for his activities as an arts organizer, arts educator and WPA-era artist. Chong was active in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

Early life and education

Fay Chong was born in Canton (modern

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in 1912, and moved to Seattle with his family in 1920. He attended public school, and studied art with Hannah Jones at Broadway High School, along with classmates

Morris Graves Morris Cole Graves (August 28, 1910 – May 5, 2001) was an American painter. He was one of the earliest Modern artists from the Pacific Northwest to achieve national and international acclaim. His style, referred to by some reviewers as Mysti ...

and

George Tsutakawa George Tsutakawa (, February 22, 1910 – December 18, 1997) was an American painter and sculptor best known for his avant-garde bronze fountain designs. Born in Seattle, Washington, he was raised in both the United States and Japan. He att ...

. He studied traditional calligraphy techniques during return visits to China in 1929 and 1935.

Career

In 1933, Chong,

Andrew Chinn Andrew Chinn (1915–1996) was a Chinese-American artist and art educator, active in the Pacific Northwest from the early 1930s through the 1990s. He is known for his distinctive style of watercolor painting and printmaking, and is associated wi ...

, Lawrence Yun, Yippie Eng, and others formed the Chinese Arts Club. Initially an informal co-op, they began holding regular shows at a shared studio in Seattle's International District, and eventually exhibited as an arts collective at the New York Chinese School. Artists

Guy Anderson Guy Anderson (November 20, 1906 – April 30, 1998) was an American artist known primarily for his oil painting who lived most of his life in the Puget Sound region of the United States. His work is in the collections of numerous museums inc ...

and William Cumming - who, along with Graves and

Mark Tobey Mark George Tobey (December 11, 1890 – April 24, 1976) was an American painter. His densely structured compositions, inspired by Asian calligraphy, resemble Abstract expressionism, although the motives for his compositions differ philosop ...

, would later become prominent members of the ' Northwest School' - were regular guests, joining them on art-making field excursions.Hallmark, Kara Kelley; Encyclopedia of Asian American Artists: Artists of the American Mosaic. Greenwood, 2007; In 1938, during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, Morris Graves helped Chong find work as an artist with the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

of the

Works Project Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to c ...

. He worked with the WPA, off and on, until 1942, mainly making linocut prints for various federal buildings and public places. He also became interested in watercolor painting at this time. After the WPA, Chong worked various jobs, including several years at a

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

school. In the mid-1950s - already a well-known, nationally exhibited "WPA artist" - he enrolled at the University of Washington, studying under

and others. He earned his B.A. degree in 1968, and M.A. degree at

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

in Arts Education in 1971. He taught art at

Cornish College of the Arts Cornish College of the Arts (CCA) was a Private college, private art school, art college in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1914 by music teacher Nellie Cornish. The college's main campus is in the Denny Triangle, Seattle, Denny Triangle ...

Seattle Central College Seattle Central College is a public college in Seattle, Washington, United States. With North Seattle College and South Seattle College, it is one of the three colleges that comprise the Seattle Colleges District. The college has a substantial ...

, Washington Senior High School, and

Ingraham High School Ingraham High School is a public high school, serving grades 9–12 in the Haller Lake neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Opened in 1959, the school is named after Edward Sturgis Ingraham, the first superintendent of the Seatt ...

.Seattle Public Library - Special Collections online; Fay Chong, biographical notes; http://cdm200301.cdmhost.com/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15015coll5/id/42/rec/3 His artwork fused traditional Chinese styles with American Regionalism and other modern developments. His later work incorporated elements of

Abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

. His art has been exhibited at the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...

, the

Frye Art Museum The Frye Art Museum is a modern and contemporary art museum in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1952 to house the collection of Charles and Emma Frye and has since grown to include rotating temporary exhibi ...

, the Zoe Dusanne Gallery, and the Francine Seders Gallery in Seattle; the

Tacoma Art Museum The Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) is an art museum in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It focuses primarily on the art and artists from the Pacific Northwest and broader western region of the U.S. Founded in 1935, the museum has strong roots in the ...

, the

Bellevue Arts Museum The Bellevue Arts Museum is a museum of contemporary visual art, craft, and design located in Bellevue, Washington, part of the greater Seattle metropolitan area. A nonprofit organization established in 1975, the Bellevue Arts Museum (BAM) provide ...

Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...

in Portland, Oregon, the

Santa Barbara Museum of Art The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) is an art museum located in downtown Santa Barbara, California. Founded in 1941, it is home to both permanent and special collections, the former of which includes Asian art, Asian, Visual arts of the United ...

in California, the Riverside Gallery in New York City, and in many other museums and galleries. He was a member of the arts organizations Northwest Printmakers (treasurer and president), the Northwest Watercolor Society (president), the Puget Sound Group of Painters, and the Washington Art Association. Chong married artist Priscilla Hwang. The two exhibited together at the annual Bellevue Arts and Crafts Fair for many years. Fay Chong died of a stroke in 1973, aged 60. His work is in many public museum art collections, including the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

, the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

, the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, and the Seattle Arts Museum, among other venues.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chong, Fay Broadway High School (Seattle) alumni American artists of Chinese descent Painters from Seattle Federal Art Project artists 1912 births 1973 deaths University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni Cornish College of the Arts faculty Chinese emigrants to the United States Naturalized citizens of the United States Date of death missing